FACTS ONLY
02-05-08, - 08:42 AM
Sea Hauler Victims To Get Cash
By Candia Dames
Victims of the Sea Hauler/United Star boating accident that occurred four and a half years ago will get cash payments from the government, although the government is not admitting that it is legally obligated to make the payments, according to Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham.
Victims of the Sea Hauler/United Star boating accident that occurred four and a half years ago will get cash payments from the government, although the government is not admitting that it is legally obligated to make the payments, according to Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham.
Mr. Ingraham said Sea Hauler victims have already received more than $100,000 in assistance from the Bahamas government.
"When we came to office I came with the clear intention of seeking to resolve the issue and offering some compensation to victims of the Sea Hauler tragedy," the prime minister said Sunday during a "Meet the Press" event he held at the British Colonial Hilton Hotel.
"Regrettably, I wasn’t in office very long when they wrote to me through their lawyer and said they demanded $12 million, that they would settle for $12 million. Well, that was a number that was so outrageous and so out of the ballpark that we never got focused on it again."
On August 2, 2003 the Motor Vessel United Star traveling from Cat Island and the Motor Vessel Sea Hauler traveling to Cat Island collided at sea with horrific consequences – four people were killed and 25 people were injured.
A statement on the government’s position regarding the matter came in December 2008, weeks after Sea Hauler victims made their latest claims.
The government has said it has been advised that nothing any of its agencies did, or failed to do, contributed in any way to the cause of the accident.
"I accept that the government has no legal obligation to the persons involved, but just as I accepted that when there was a fire at the [straw] market [in 2001] and the government owned the market and people lost goods in the market, I accepted that the government should pay some monies and we did to persons who lost goods," Prime Minister Ingraham said.
"I also accept that the government has a department that’s called the Port Department that licensed the boats to undertake these weekend trips [for] excursions etc., that there is a set of rules as to how many passengers a boat of a particular size should carry etc. and if boats leave in numbers in excess of that, notwithstanding whatever the technical, legal argument is, the government has a responsibility for not having done what it should have done."
Mr. Ingraham said the government has asked for information about all the injuries sustained during the tragedy.
"We’ve had some communications from some of the victims and in due course we are going to be in a position to make a judgment about what we’re going to offer," the prime minister said.
"We will make some cash offers to some of the victims of the tragedy, not because we are convinced that we have any legal obligation or any legal responsibility. The other thing is we were also told after we came to office that they were going to go to court [since we couldn’t entertain their $12 million]. We didn’t want to interfere with that either."
As reported by the Bahama Journal earlier, the issue regarding the government’s response to the Sea Hauler victims’ demands was discussed on the campaign trail with Mr. Ingraham, then leader of the Opposition, accusing the Christie-led government of failing to address the plight of the victims of the accident.
At a rally on Long Island last January, Mr. Ingraham said Prime Minister Perry Christie and his government "delayed acknowledging the government’s liability to the victims of the Sea Hauler/United Star tragedy notwithstanding the findings of the official investigation into the events surrounding the incident. They have not kept faith with the Bahamian people."
Later, he accused the PLP government of being "late again" in responding to the Sea Hauler victims.
However, while Mr. Ingraham said on the campaign trail that the Christie government had "delayed acknowledging the government’s liability to the victims", a statement from the Cabinet Office in December said the government was not culpable in the incident.
By Candia Dames
Victims of the Sea Hauler/United Star boating accident that occurred four and a half years ago will get cash payments from the government, although the government is not admitting that it is legally obligated to make the payments, according to Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham.
Victims of the Sea Hauler/United Star boating accident that occurred four and a half years ago will get cash payments from the government, although the government is not admitting that it is legally obligated to make the payments, according to Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham.
Mr. Ingraham said Sea Hauler victims have already received more than $100,000 in assistance from the Bahamas government.
"When we came to office I came with the clear intention of seeking to resolve the issue and offering some compensation to victims of the Sea Hauler tragedy," the prime minister said Sunday during a "Meet the Press" event he held at the British Colonial Hilton Hotel.
"Regrettably, I wasn’t in office very long when they wrote to me through their lawyer and said they demanded $12 million, that they would settle for $12 million. Well, that was a number that was so outrageous and so out of the ballpark that we never got focused on it again."
On August 2, 2003 the Motor Vessel United Star traveling from Cat Island and the Motor Vessel Sea Hauler traveling to Cat Island collided at sea with horrific consequences – four people were killed and 25 people were injured.
A statement on the government’s position regarding the matter came in December 2008, weeks after Sea Hauler victims made their latest claims.
The government has said it has been advised that nothing any of its agencies did, or failed to do, contributed in any way to the cause of the accident.
"I accept that the government has no legal obligation to the persons involved, but just as I accepted that when there was a fire at the [straw] market [in 2001] and the government owned the market and people lost goods in the market, I accepted that the government should pay some monies and we did to persons who lost goods," Prime Minister Ingraham said.
"I also accept that the government has a department that’s called the Port Department that licensed the boats to undertake these weekend trips [for] excursions etc., that there is a set of rules as to how many passengers a boat of a particular size should carry etc. and if boats leave in numbers in excess of that, notwithstanding whatever the technical, legal argument is, the government has a responsibility for not having done what it should have done."
Mr. Ingraham said the government has asked for information about all the injuries sustained during the tragedy.
"We’ve had some communications from some of the victims and in due course we are going to be in a position to make a judgment about what we’re going to offer," the prime minister said.
"We will make some cash offers to some of the victims of the tragedy, not because we are convinced that we have any legal obligation or any legal responsibility. The other thing is we were also told after we came to office that they were going to go to court [since we couldn’t entertain their $12 million]. We didn’t want to interfere with that either."
As reported by the Bahama Journal earlier, the issue regarding the government’s response to the Sea Hauler victims’ demands was discussed on the campaign trail with Mr. Ingraham, then leader of the Opposition, accusing the Christie-led government of failing to address the plight of the victims of the accident.
At a rally on Long Island last January, Mr. Ingraham said Prime Minister Perry Christie and his government "delayed acknowledging the government’s liability to the victims of the Sea Hauler/United Star tragedy notwithstanding the findings of the official investigation into the events surrounding the incident. They have not kept faith with the Bahamian people."
Later, he accused the PLP government of being "late again" in responding to the Sea Hauler victims.
However, while Mr. Ingraham said on the campaign trail that the Christie government had "delayed acknowledging the government’s liability to the victims", a statement from the Cabinet Office in December said the government was not culpable in the incident.